Marlins offense shows up big in spring training opener. Takeaways from the first game

Jazz Chisholm needed just two pitches on Sunday for his plan to come to fruition as the Miami Marlins opened their 24-game spring training schedule.

After taking the first pitch from Houston Astros pitcher Brandon Bielak, Chisholm uncorked on the second pitch and sent it into the Astros’ bullpen in left field for a leadoff, opposite field home run at The Ballpark of the Palm Beaches.

It started a string of four consecutive Marlins hits — capped by a two-run home run from Lewis Brinson — that helped the Marlins defeat the Astros 6-1 in a seven-inning game.

“It felt great to start off with a bang,” Chisholm said. “Glad to see that it showed from the first at-bat.”

Jon Berti (2 for 2) and Garrett Cooper (RBI double) had hits between the two first-inning home runs.

JJ Bleday also hit a solo home run.

“It was good,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said, “to see our guys put some runs on the board, being aggressive.”

Here are four takeaways from the Marlins’ first spring training game.

The kids get the first crack at live games.

Mattingly wanted to give the bulk of Miami’s veterans an extra day of practice before sending them out into spring training games.

“It’s just a matter of I had to spread them out,” Mattingly said, “because of the rules with MLB and only having so many guys in each lineup, things like that. But in general, you start to move guys around over time, different positions, different spots. Pretty much just trying to put lineups together.”

And so the prospects and players fighting for roster spots took up the majority of Miami’s starting lineup on Sunday.

The batting order: shortstop Chisholm, third baseman Berti, first baseman Cooper, right fielder Brinson, second baseman Isan Diaz, catcher Chad Wallach, center fielder Monte Harrison, left fielder Magneuris Sierra and designated hitter JJ Bleday.

With the exception of Wallach, the starters came off the field midway through the fourth inning. The replacements: Lewin Diaz at first base, Luis Marte at second, Nasim Nunez at shortstop, Joe Dunand at third, Peyton Burdick in left field Brian Miller in center field and Jesus Sanchez in right field. Brian Navarreto replaced Wallach in the sixth.

The battle for the fifth spot in the starting rotation has begun.

Four pitchers are primarily competing for the Marlins final spot in the starting rotation.

Two of them — Daniel Castano and Nick Neidert — had the first crack at stating their case on Sunday.

Both pitched two innings against the Astros, with Castano starting the game and Neidert coming out of the bullpen to pitch the third and fourth innings.

Neidert threw a pair of scoreless innings, working around a pair of singles. Neidert threw 31 pitches, 20 of which went for strikes.

Castano only gave up one run but he needed 39 pitches (22 strikes) to get through his two innings and gave up a pair of hard hits to Kyle Tucker and Jason Castro with two outs in the first inning to bring in the run.

Braxton Garrett and Trevor Rogers are the other two contending for the final rotation spot to join Sandy Alcantara, Pablo Lopez, Elieser Hernandez and Sixto Sanchez.

Finally, the Marlins had a chance to play in front of fans again.

It was a small crowd — just 1,569 people — but any crowd was an improvement over last season, when MLB had to play games in empty ballparks (save for the National League Championship Series and World Series in Arlington).

“It felt way better with fans out there, being able to interact and make eye contact with them,” Chisholm said. “They were as happy as we were to be out here.”

Mattingly said he didn’t think too much about being in front of fans until he got to the ballpark and saw people hanging along the rails and yelling (both for and against the Marlins).

”It was nice just to have that interaction and it not be cardboard cutouts,” Mattingly said.

Two more seven-inning games are up next on the docket before extending out to nine-inning games the rest of spring training.

Just like Sunday, the Marlins’ next two games against the New York Mets on Monday and St. Louis Cardinals on Tuesday — both 1:05 p.m. starts at Jupiter’s Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium — will be seven-inning games. The plan is for the final 21 games of spring training to be nine-inning contests.

Alcantara is scheduled to be Miami’s starting pitcher on Monday. Lopez is set to start on Tuesday.